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Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal Tournament 2003, initially developed as Unreal Tournament 2, was unofficially announced on December 3, 2001. It was officially announced by Infogrames (now Atari) on January 4, 2002. UT2003 was released to stores on September 30, 2002. Prologue Over a century has passed since Liandri Corporation first began the Tournaments, and while the tradition lives on much has changed in the world around it… Seventy years ago an invasion fleet appeared in human space, wiping out virtually all resistance before it could begin. Humanity, a race that had taken pride in its freedom suddenly found itself bound by the shackles of an ancient race vastly superior in numbers and technology. The Empire quickly established a foothold among the worlds of its latest acquirement, using propaganda and brute force where necessary. Those who swore allegiance to the Emperor found that life wasn't so different under the new rule, and for some it even improved. But for those who would not kneel before their new rulers, death awaited them on the prison planets scattered across the sectors. The Emperor and his counsel, at first repulsed by the idea of the tournaments, soon began to see the advantage of providing the populace with a form of entertainment that both enraptured the viewers and reminded them where disobedience would lead them. Arena worlds were picked from the harshest of the prison planets, and the training began. People who had watched the Liandri Tournaments with savage glee found themselves on the arena floors fighting for their lives again and again, as the alien technology ripped them back from the brink of death until their minds finally collapsed under the strain. Examples were made of the more vocal dissidents, each broken and remade in the image of the darkest nightmares, to show the scorn the Emperor felt for the weaklings who opposed him. Not all the participants took part unwillingly. A race of beings previously unknown slaughtered the new combatants with reckless abandon, taking pride in the ease at which they butchered the new meat. For all they cheered during each battle, every time another human died the spirit of the men and women who watched grew weaker. Now that the Tournaments have become a fixture of the Empire's power, the aristocracy has begun to take part as well, in carefully orchestrated battles that pose no real danger to their lives. Unlike their prisoners, these Highborn can not use the resurrection technology so readily available, without losing their status as ones tainted by madness. To kill a Highborn is to kill him forever. The only hope for mankind is that a champion will rise from the ashes of their civilization and succeed against all odds, to hold the Emperor's life in their hands. History Unreal Tournament 2003 began development as a PC port of the then existing Unreal Championship code for the original Xbox named Unreal Tournament 2. Initially, the game continued development alongside Unreal Championship and the two games were expected to be released around the same time in the summer of 2002. However, after E3 2002, it became clear to Epic and DE that they would be able to complete both UT2003 and Unreal Championship faster if each team was dedicated to one specific game, so Epic took over UT2003 allowing DE to focues on Unreal Championship. Around this time in the summer of 2002, someone working for ATI, who had received a pre-release copy of UT2003 to demo their new hardware, leaked it onto many popular P2P programs. This is sometimes referred to as the "927 beta". Also around the time Epic took over the development of UT2003, Mark Rein began reporting that the demo would be out in "around two weeks". Every two weeks he would come back and say "it's going to be at least two more weeks". This led to a variety of jokes regarding Mark Rein and "two weeks". When the demo was actually nearing completion in mid-September, 2002, CliffyB set up a webcam that was pointed at a sign on the wall of Epic's office stating that the demo would be done in so much time, eventually coming down to hours. The demo was finally released September 13th, 2002. Exactly a week later on September 20th, the game went gold to much displeasure from the fans who were expecting Epic to spend more time fixing bugs that were being reported before the game was released on September 30, 2002. Demo The demo for the game saw massive initial success. Most download records at the time were broken upon it's release. The demo was released with four maps: DM-Antalus, DM-Asbestos, CTF-Citadel, and BR-Anubis. There were many small changes made between the demo and the retail version of the game. One of the largest of these changes being modifications to the link gun. On February 19th, 2003, an updated demo was released. In addition to a number of bug fixes, it included an additional map: CTF-Orbital2. Release Details Unreal Tournament 2003 had only one release. It was published by Atari and released to stores on September 30, 2002. Other Unreal Tournament games have been released in a variety of formats, however UT2003 was skipped over even for the Unreal Anthology since almost all of it's content was also included in UT2004. Reception While Unreal Tournament 2003 saw massive initial success, with the release of the demo actually slowing down the internet by up to 73%, it was not well received by fans of the series. The game did receive mostly high scores and positive reviews, however many fans of the series thought the new gameplay features detracted from the fun of the original game and stopped playing. Critiques of the game mostly often included double jumping, dodge jumping, the inclusion of adrenaline and the overall reduction in damage and effectiveness of all of the weapons aside from hitscan. A few months after the release of the game, a fairly strong, small community rose up around the game and lasted until the release of Unreal Tournament 2004. Game Content Music Starsky Partridge (Digital Extremes) and Kevin Riepl (Epic Games) are credited for creating the music of Unreal Tournament 2003. ;Tracks *Assault *Chemical Burn *DeathMatch 1 *Ending Sequence *From Below V2 *Ghosts of Anubis *Hell *Infernal Realm *Jug's Entrance *Level1 *Level2 *Level3 *Level4 *Level5 *Level6 *Level7 *Level8 *Level9 *Level10 *Level11 *Level12 *Level13 *Menu 01 *Menu Music *Menu Music V2 *Menu *Merc's Entrance *Pharaoh's Revenge *Sniper Time *Stage Music *Tomb of Horus *WasteLand Weapons *Translocator *Shield Gun *Assault Rifle *Bio Rifle *Shock Rifle *Link Gun *Minigun *Flak Cannon *Rocket Launcher *Lightning Gun *Ion Painter *Redeemer Characters There are 6 races to choose from in the game: *Humans *Cybernetics *Gen Mo'Kai *Juggernauts *Nightmare *Nakhti All form teams: Teams Gametypes * Bombing Run * Capture The Flag * Deathmatch * Double Domination * Invasion (Epic BP) * Last Man Standing (Epic BP) * Mutant (Epic BP) * Team Deathmatch Maps Essential Files Here you will find all the links to the downloads of the essential files for your Unreal installation (due to BeyondUnreal not supporting the Essential Files wizard any more. Note: you can still see the unsupported page here). Patches Windows *UT2003 Patch 2225 for Windows - Latest Windows Patch. File Date: April 23 2003 Linux Epic Games recommends that Linux users run "loki_update" in the "updater" folder wherever you installed UT2003. The latest patch for Linux is available now via the updater. However, if you would like to do a manual upgrade, you must install the following patches in the correct order. *Download UT2003 Patch 2107-2126 for Linux *Download UT2003 Patch 2126-2136 for Linux *Download UT2003 Patch 2136-2166 for Linux *Download UT2003 Patch 2166-2186 for Linux *Download UT2003 Patch 2186-2199 for Linux *Download UT2003 Patch 2225 for Linux Again, we recommend you use the Linux UT2003's built-in auto updater. Macintosh *UT2003 Installer (updated) for Macintosh. File Date: October 31 2003 *UT2003 Patch 2225.1 for Macintosh. File Date: October 31 2003 Demos *UT2003 Demo v2206 for Windows. File Date: February 24 2003 *UT2003 Demo v2206 for Linux. File Date: February 24 2003 *DoS fix patch for UT2003 demo version 2206 - for those who host a UT2003 server via the Demo version. File Date: April 6 2003 Standalone Server Note: you'll need to get a valid dedicated server key, available here or here. *UT2003 Dedicated Server for Windows. To patch a Windows dedicated server, you must download the latest Windows patch from the list above, rename the file to .zip and extract it to your UT2003 directory. File Date: October 28 2002 *UT2003 Dedicated Server for Linux. File Date: October 5 2002 *:Note: You should download and install these Dedicated Server patches for Linux in order... **Download UT2003 2136 Dedicated Server Patch for Linux (Tarball) **Download UT2003 2166 Dedicated Server Patch for Linux **Download UT2003 2186 Dedicated Server Patch for Linux **Download UT2003 2199 Dedicated Server Patch for Linux (Tarball) **Download UT2003 2225 Dedicated Server Patch for Linux (Tarball) Bonus Packs Epic Bonus Pack *Epic Games UT2003 Bonus Pack One (Self extracting EXE). File Date: March 11 2003 *UT 2003 Epic Bonus Pack One Linux Installer. File Date: December 30 2003 **.md5 file DE Bonus Pack *Digital Extremes UT2003 Bonus Pack (UMOD Version). File Date: January 31 2003 *Digital Extremes UT2003 Bonus Pack (Non-UMOD Version) - for dedicated servers. File Date: January 31 2003 *UT 2003 Digital Extremes Bonus Pack Linux Installer. File Date: December 30 2003 **.md5 file Community Bonus Pack *UT 2003 Community Bonus Pack Linux Installer. File Date: December 30 2003 **.md5 file Miscellaneous *Epic Games UT2003 BrightSkins - client-side patch for UT2004-style brighter skins. File Date: April 23 2003 *UT 2003 2225 Patch Source *UT 2003 2225 Debug .U Files *UT 2003 2166 Patch Source *UT 2003 Patch Source & Debugger *UT 2003 Source Classes *UPaint 1.0.2 Patch Bonus Content Epic Bonus Pack Released on March 11, 2003 by Epic Games. Included: *Three new gametypes, two new mutators, two additional features and ten new maps. Gametypes *Mutant *Last Man Standing *Invasion Mutators *Pint-sized Combo *Camouflage Combo Additional Features *In-game OGG Player *Custom Announcer Voices DE Bonus Pack Released on January 31, 2003 by Digital Extremes. Included: *Six new maps User Created Content Community Bonus Pack Released on October 28, 2003 by CBP Team. Download link. Included: *Eighteen new maps *Angel Fire Mutator Pack Additional Information Trivia *'Unreal Tournament 2003' was originally named Unreal Tournament 2 but the name was changed by Digital Extremes to give the game more of a sports theme feel. * A number of copies of the game came with a misprinted manual. Instead of the regular black text, the booklet was printed in orange text and was difficult to read. This prompted Epic to release a PDF version of the game manual. Previews and Reviews References *Unreal Tournament 2 Exists! *Epic Takes Over UT2003 Development *Demo downloaded by over 1.2 million people in just five days *UT2003 Goes Gold! *BU Running slow after UT2003 demo release *Internet slows to a chug after UT2003 demo release *UT2003 Demo Released